A Study Looks at Environmental Influences on Children

02 August 2011

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

One of the largest health studies ever done in the United States will look at environmental influences on children.

The study will examine the many environmental and genetic factors that affect the health of children and the adults they become.

Dr. Steven Hirshfeld at the National Institutes of Health is the study director. Test projects have already begun, and he says the main part of the National Children's Study will begin next year.

STEVEN HIRSHFELD: "Our goal is to understand how you can get the healthiest, most robust child to develop into a healthy and contributing member of adult society."

Researchers want to study one hundred thousand children across America. The study will collect information from before they are born until they are twenty-one years old.

A family of four spends time together reading a book. The study aims to find the effects of genetic and environmental influences.

There are seven centers around the country where parents can join the study. Jennifer, three months pregnant, signed up for the study at the University of California, Los Angeles.

JENNIFER: "Well, living in Los Angeles, I’m concerned, like, obviously about the pollution and the smog and that kind of stuff. And, you know, I’m also concerned about what I put in my body, like is the food genetically modified? Like, is the food organic? Like, do they add chemicals or preservatives to things and, like, how do those things have an effect on an unborn child?"